ENGINEERING SERIES A SUCCESS FOR ISEMBARD
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ENGINEERING SERIES A SUCCESS FOR ISEMBARD
Isembard, the precision engineering franchise business founded by serial entrepreneur Alex Fitzgerald, has successfully closed a $50 million Series A funding round.
Isembard is a proudly British business with global ambitions to disrupt manufacturing and become the UK’s first trillion-dollar company.
We spoke with Alex as part of our founders interview series following the round close.
Below, he tells us why media coverage can make your GEO results more attractive to investors, why news stories build credibility and trust with VCs, why he admires EV giant BYD… and why job titles are meaningless.
Q: HOW IMPORTANT WAS PR TO YOUR FUNDRAISE?
Central. While the hunt for algorithmic clicks and reach on LinkedIn posts is common for a typical founder, most people are reached through media and the press. It’s the ripple in the pool that triggers wider conversations. Whether your customers are businesses or consumers, speaking to the press directly should be a core part of how you project your business across the ether.
Q: HOW MUCH DIFFERENCE DOES MEDIA COVERAGE MAKE TO YOUR CREDIBILITY WHEN YOU’RE PITCHING TO INVESTORS?
Media coverage matters so far as it helps drive all areas of the business, which investors and founders should care about. Customer acquisition. Finding the best talent. When you Google or ChatGPT a company, people check the news to see what is current. Getting credible coverage is a central part of trust building. It would be much harder to pitch to investors if they’d never heard of you. I always use media coverage in investor decks.
Q: YOU’VE ALREADY LAUNCHED AND EXITED ONE BUSINESS - CUCKOO - WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM THAT? AND WAS THERE ANYTHING RELATED TO PR THAT YOU LEARNED FROM IT?
That the most important thing in any business is finding the most talented people who can execute against your mission. Powerful PR is the forcing function to get their eyeballs in your direction.
Q: WHAT’S THE ONE PIECE OF ADVICE YOU WISH YOU COULD TELL ALL ENTREPRENEURS?
Ignore 99% of advice 😄
Q: IF YOU COULD GO BACK TO DAY ONE, WHAT WOULD YOU TELL YOURSELF?
Less time planning, more time reacting to reality. I remember writing a 100 page thesis for my first business before doing any actual work. The moment that document was written, it became out of date…
Q: WHAT’S THE SCRAPPIEST THING YOU’VE DONE SO FAR TO MAKE PROGRESS?
Job titles are meaningless, so people choose their own based on each situation they come up against.
Q: IN ONE SENTENCE - WHAT WAS YOUR LIGHTBULB MOMENT FOR STARTING THE BUSINESS?
That the reality of manufacturing was, is and shall be the machines which make components. With enough parts you can make a planet. And with enough machines, you can remake the world.
Q: WHICH AMBITIOUS TECH COMPANY DO YOU MOST ADMIRE, AND WHY?
BYD, the ability to expand and to never give up.
Q: WHAT ARE YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT WITH YOUR BUSINESS RIGHT NOW?
The talent of the engineers who come to Isembard to rebuild the West.
Q: WHAT’S THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED AS A FOUNDER?
The single most important thing in a business is the mission.
Q: WHAT’S ONE BOOK YOU THINK EVERYBODY SHOULD READ?
Material World by Ed Conway.
Q: ONE WORD YOU HOPE PEOPLE USE TO DESCRIBE YOU - AND ONE WORD FOR YOUR BUSINESS?
Unrelenting. Useful.
Harpswood has worked with Isembard since 2025, raising its profile in the UK and US with investors, customers and potential franchisees through media coverage.
Months before the Series A round, Harpswood worked to build Isembard’s credibility and reputation through positive media coverage – a process Alex describes as “central” to the fundraise.
Harpswood landed coverage on the South West’s BBC Spotlight for Isembard’s first franchise factory in Exeter. Franchisee Shaun Rowcliffe described the development as “the second industrial revolution” - a claim the presenter repeated on air. We landed more coverage for Shaun and the Exeter factory with two hits in The Times, including one on a very busy Budget day.
Harpswood helped build Alex’s leadership profile too with quotes in The Telegraph over finance for British security start-ups and an opinion piece on the LBC website about a second industrial revolution.
The announcement of the Series A close saw another wave of coverage. The story was covered exclusively by Sky News City Editor Mark Kleinman on Sky’s website and X before being followed widely in UK and US media. Other top titles running it included Sifted, Axios and Fortune.
Messages landed in the coverage included Isembard’s ambition to build 25 factories this year and the fact that its lead investor - Union Square Ventures - had huge credibility as an early investor in Twitter.
Coverage also highlighted Isembard’s MasonOS AI software which manages every aspect of the production process in every franchise factory.
Harpswood generated 54 pieces of coverage for the Series A round close in the UK and US – with more in Ukraine, Germany, Switzerland, India, Korea and Taiwan.
If you're closing a Series A fund round and want support sharing the news get in touch by emailing hello@harpswood.com.